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How to be happy. The CURE all.

I am a true believer in the fact that life is made to live simply… BUT it is US that creates our own obstacles. Do you agree?

Recently a friend of mine shared with me some mindful thoughts and I really took them to heart. I read and re-read each and every word. I mulled over the fact that YES, these are such basic practices we should all take notice of and … practice .

Want to know how to be a little more conscious of the behaviors you or someone else may be doing that are causing unnecessary pain and suffering in their lives?

BE conscious. BE happier.

Here are some things (easy, I promise) that we can give up in order to create a more streamlined and conflict free lifestyle:

1. Stop complaining.

Don’t find fault, find a remedy; anybody can complain.~ Henry Ford

Nobody wants to be around someone who complains all the time. Yet we all do it. Instead of finding a reason to complain, look for the solution if you’re facing a problem. Look for something positive in your life. There’s always something positive to find in our life if we shift our focus.

2. Stop Judging.

We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It’s one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it’s another to think that yours is the only path.~ Paulo Coelho

Stop judging other peoples lives and focus on perfecting your own life. We spend so much time gossiping rather than working on perfecting ourselves. Focus on your own life, and how you’re going to perfect it.

3. Stop avoiding your fear.

Run from what’s comfortable. Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious.~ Rumi

Fear is an obnoxious thing—it slows you down from finding a career you love, a romantic relationship and pursing your dreams. Do something that makes you uncomfortable every day, in small steps, and it will dramatically alter the course of your life.

4. Stop being so hard on yourself.

When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.~ African Proverb

The biggest enemy that you face is the one inside you—this enemy criticizes, condemns, and complains. Don’t let these unconscious patterns run your life.

Come to terms with these patterns. The biggest enemy you ever have to face in the one inside of you.

5. Stop being negative.

Misery loves company.~ Anonymous

If you focus on being negative it’s going to show up everywhere in your life. It will show up in your work, relations and everything else. Shift your focus away from being so negative all the time. Find things that make you come alive!

6. Stop caring about what other people think of you.

Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.~ Lao Tzu

Every great artist, musician, political leader, ignored what people thought of them. Other people’s opinions of you are none of your business. What people think of you should not drown out your own inner voice and inspirations.

7. Stop worrying about the small stuff.

When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.~ Winston Churchill

Think about all the unnecessary worries that go through your mind all day. We worry about why someone is not returning our emails, texts, phone calls. We worry about everything and anything.

Focus on what you can do at the present moment and not about how you can worry about the outcome.

8. Stop needing to be right all the time.

The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar to new ideas. It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong than to be always right by having no ideas at all.~ Edward De Bono

Stop needing to be right all the time, this can lead to so many unnecessary arguments. Instead of needing to be right, start working on being more open to other peoples opinions. Start asking more questions and become more interested in other people’s points of view. It may open a whole new dimension of life.

9. Stop blaming others.

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.~ George Bernard Shaw

We constantly blame everyone for all types of different things. Quit blaming other people for your circumstances. If you want to change something go out and do it! Don’t blame someone for your present day situations.

10. Stop living in the past or the future.

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.~ Henry David Thoreau

So much of our attention is on past experiences or on how we will be in the future. Focus your mind on the present moment. We would be so much happier if we placed our attention on the present.

Happiness begins with a positive attitude, sometimes you have to fake it until you make it, but this is simply practice towards the ultimate reward.

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What you may or may not know about yoga. Why I think you should start doing it and maintaining your practice.

Starting: N O W .

1. Stress Prevention and Relief

It’s probably not a surprise to you that you can mellow out with a yoga session after a rough day, but did you know that a daily yoga practice can actually decrease the likelihood that you’ll get stressed out in the first place? In a study, a yoga group and a control group took an exam. The yoga group had practiced yoga 35 minutes per day with a trained instructor for 12 weeks prior to the test. The yoga group didn’t have a significant increase in stress (based on heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure), but the control group did.

2. Improved Immunity

Similarly, yoga was shown to decrease postoperative stress in breast cancer patients, which led to a stronger immune system (no significant immune system depression after surgery) and better odds of a successful recovery from surgery. In this study, yoga was said to decrease anxiety and depression, too.

3. Improved Relationships

Yoga affects your mind and spirit in a way that has an effect on your relationships with others—your spouse, your kids, your parents, your friends, and even strangers. When you feel more at peace, more in the moment, more in tune with everyone around you, you begin to notice things and interact with people in a much more positive and compassionate way. If yoga has given you more confidence (likely!), you’ll probably be more open to communicating your own thoughts, needs, and suggestions. Don’t be surprised if you not only begin strengthening your current relationships, but begin to attract new friends and acquaintances, too.

4. Ability to Stay in the Moment

Have you ever tried to hold a balancing pose while your mind was on dinner, the drama with your sister, or some issue at work you’ve been dealing with? You topple over, right? Yoga trains you to keep your mind focused and in the moment, and with enough practice, that ability bleeds over into all other areas of your life. You’ll be a more attentive friend because of it, and you may also find that you’re much more efficient in your daily life because you’re not slowing yourself down by letting your mind travel into the past or the future while you’re working on something else. In addition, you’ll really get to revel in those little moments of joy you might have otherwise missed, and those all add up to a happier you!

5. Ease of Making Better Food Choices (and Less Binge Eating)

Yoga lowers levels of cortisol and increases levels of serotonin in the body. When cortisol is up, you’re more likely to binge eat (aka stress eat!). When you practice yoga, you become more in tune with what your body really needs, not what it’s craving in order to fill a void, and you’ll be less likely to reach for a convenience food with no nutritional value. By calming yourself through yoga, you may find that you have fewer cravings overall anyway.

6. Increased Strength

This one may not come as a surprise, but for those of you who have never done yoga and think it’s easy or all about flexibility and balance, know that you can get incredibly strong from practicing yoga, too. (Also, it’s not exactly easy, per se, but anyone can do it—you can start anywhere and work your way up to challenges that require lots of strength, flexibility, and balance!)

7. Removal of Toxins

Yoga stimulates the lymphatic system, which helps to flush the toxins out. Be sure to drink plenty of water before and after your practice to ensure that those toxins that start moving get pushed all the way out of your body.

8. Pain Management

Yoga has been successfully used as a component of treatment for lower back pain. That may not come as a shock, since so much of yoga puts at least some attention on back strength and flexibility. However, yoga has also been used—with significant results—in other areas of pain management, like carpal tunnel syndrome, hand osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, and joint pain in breast cancer survivors. In many cases, the yoga routines used in these studies were designed for the particular issue at hand, but often worked as a holistic approach anyway, alleviating much more than pain. For example, participants noticed a better grip (those with hand osteoporosis, in particular), better mood, less fatigue, a feeling of acceptance, and increased energy.

9. Protected Bone Density

You can do yoga for strong bones! Running and lifting weights at the gym aren’t the only way to avoid losing bone density as you age. Strength-bearing poses in yoga have the same effect in premenopausal women. Doing yoga now reduces the risk for osteoporosis later in life.

10. Improved Cardiovascular Health

Mindfulness-based stress reduction combines yoga and meditation and has been shown to lower stress, anxiety, depression, blood pressure, and BMI in patients with coronary heart disease.

You may also be surprised to know that you can actually get in a good cardiovascular workout. Yoga isn’t all about sitting still and taking deep breaths, or even holding poses for a long time while taking deep breaths. Some routines are pretty fast-paced and can get your heart rate up! And while you’re working on that, muscles all over your body are getting stronger, too, as you shift from one pose to the next.

11. Better Mood (Lowered Depression Risk)

As the breast cancer study mentioned above, yoga has the ability to alleviate depression and anxiety, boosting the quality of life for those who practice it. In addition, yoga could be recommended as a portion of the treatment for those suffering from depression. In a prison setting study, a 10-week yoga course decreased levels of depression and anxiety in inmates and workers. There was also a boost in their cognitive-behavioral performance.

Yoga has also been shown to help with the mood swings and other things that go along with menopause!

12. Improvement in Asthma

Yoga can actually benefit those who suffer from asthma. Deep-breathing exercises could increase the stamina of the lungs and allow people to get a better awareness of how they should be breathing, so when something goes awry, they notice earlier and can take care of it before the attack becomes dangerous.

13. Better Digestion

All those twists are good for more than flexibility! They stimulate your digestive tract, too, and make elimination easier. I recommend doing a few twists when you wake up in the morning just to rev everything up and ensure that you can start your day feeling lighter, not weighed down.

A Holistic Approach with Ongoing Benefits

You may have noticed that a lot of the surprising benefits of yoga came with a few extra positives attached, and several of the benefits listed here are interlinked. Yoga is a fantastic holistic approach to improving your mental, emotional, and physical health. A lot of the benefits you find on the mat also extend well beyond your session or even the hour or so after you’re done with your practice. When you practice yoga regularly, for example, you don’t get stressed out as easily and your perspective in general shifts to give you a happier, more positive outlook on life.

Want to learn how to do a yoga handstand? I can teach you!

To schedule a yoga advising session and to speak further about how I can help you become a better student in life : ) Please contact me below. I look forward to visiting with you soon!

katherine@simplyseasalt.com

Namaste!

xoxo guru love xoxo

* Big ‘Thanks’ to Kimberly Snyder for the tid bits of today, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves! *

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Typically, I run in the early mornings as a way to press the “restart” button on my day. It’s an easy way for me to invigorate my senses and chill my mood for any obstacles the day may bring.

Today…. I ran…. I ran FAST! I ran AWAY from a human eating bird! WHAT?! Yes, I knew many people would not believe me or might think that I am crazy, but it’s true. I was attacked.

Remember that timeless movie by Alfred Hitchcock? The Birds? Well, see the photo…That was me in action this morning.

I was running along thinking to myself, “MAN, my pace is excellent, I feel strong and could go for miles….” B-A-M !

My eyes shook, my head slammed forward. It felt as though someone had taken a paddle with nails attached to it and smacked me over the head! “Am I getting attacked right now?” My thoughts and movements seemed to transform in slow motion… I grabbed for my head and screamed, “OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Nothing was around me except from the corner of my eye I saw the sweeping dark shadow of the largest wingspan I had ever witnessed, and away it escaped…

“OH MY GOD!!!!!” I was terrified, nothing else around me, no one in sight. It was dark, the sun wasn’t even awake. “…but, but, I’m a vegan…what did I ever do to YOU?!”

Why do I run? I run to be free. To show that I am stronger than any obstacle that may pop up in my life. Well, I pushed my abilities this morning. After checking for blood on the back of my head, none, thank you, I sped back home. My head aching. My thoughts spinning with questions. Why did this happen?

Why are the birds so angry?!

Keep on running.

xoxo flutter feet xoxo

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a bit about Chanari

I specialize in creating that "effortlessly chic" style within your daily wardrobe! Not only do we make connections through the clothes we wear, but through ink...Take a look at some of our original illustrations. What a fabulous way to make a first impression!
E-mail me: info@chanaristyle.com